1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a coating drum and associated method for coating of flexible strandular foods susceptible to microbial spoilage such as that of strandular cooked pasta or fabricated protein products, e.g., spaghetti, macaroni, noodles, etc. and particularly for such pasta products which are cooked and then coated with an acid and oil before packaging in an airtight container as part of a ready to eat meal having extended shelf life.
2. Prior Art
The above mentioned parent case of this application, namely, Ser. No. 07/991/454 relates to a packaged fully cooked meal having an extended shelf life. Such meal comprises a fully cooked starchy foodstuff and an edible acid that is uniformly dispersed in said foodstuff.
in the coating of cooked strandular pasta in the above described invention with the use of continuous apparatus, it was found that the strands would ball up in the coater, the coating was not uniform, and surges in the coater from the blancher would affect the acidity as well as the uniformity of the quality of product to be packaged. Additionally, it was difficult to maintain a sufficiently high temperature through the coater and downstream apparatus such as that for transferring product to the packaging equipment.
The inability to maintain the high temperature from the blancher to the packaging equipment or to isolate the pasta from contact with the atmosphere required that the pasta be subjected to pasteurization, sterilization or freezing for storage stability after being packaged in an airtight container.
Coating on a batch basis has shortcomings in addition to the amount of time and labor involved. Thus, cooked pasta becomes gummy if held more than about two minutes after draining. Also, the temperature drop during batch coating is excessive.
Continuous coating drums generally contain flights or baffles to tumble or turn the product. This, however, causes balling up of the cooked strandular pasta and affects the uniformity of acid as well as other treatments to which the pasta may be exposed in the coater. Furthermore, continuous coaters as well as down stream equipment for packaging of products are generally not insulated.
In the continuous coating of pasta strands, a significant decrease in temperature permits the growth of microorganisms. Additionally, lack of structure in the coater to limit surges in the feed from a continuous blancher adversely affects the uniformity of the coating and causes difficulties with downstream equipment such as packaging equipment. Surges of food to the coater are particularly prevalent with automatic blanchers since they have a screw drive for moving product through and out of the blancher.